Chemical Engineering World

Safety Definitely MUST Come FirstMy previous job which is in the oil and gas field was very strict in safety and health. We cannot tolerate with safety. We must wear all the required personal protective equipment (PPE). If the PPE is expansive, your bos/company must be willing to spend on them (Yeah....many of those PPE are damn expansive...he he..) If not, you cannot perform your job. The job requires all sort of details. Before performing any job, we must have a pre-job meeting. There the documents such as Job Safety Analysis (JSA), Method of Statement (MOS), Emergency Response Procedure (ERP) must be clearly defined and presented. Then only if everything is fine and accepted, we shall receive the Permit to Work (PTW). So, there we go, do our work...wearing all the safety helmet, safety goggles, Tyvek coverall (protecting from chemicals/oils/condensate), Safety boot, rubber glove + cotton glove. Well, after some time doing the work using those PPE, there were findings that the oil/condensate that we sometimes play around with....contain some amount of mercury....So, guess what, the regulation became more strict....Then, we have to discuss things more detail inside the meeting/pre-job meeting to overcome the hazard from mercury. Some additional steps/precaution have to be taken. In addition to that, it was also discovered, that the flash point of the condensate that we face during work may cause ignite fire (or worse...explode)...so, again addional discussion...bla...bla..and more precaution...more PPE.....So, finally it was concluded that we have to wear 2 coveralls at one time during work, one is NOMEX - a fire proof coverall..which can protect us for getting enough time to escape if we are caught in fire......and the second one...is some Tyvek coverall that is mercury/heavy metal proof....Ooohhh could you imagine wearing 2 coveralls under the hot sun while doing our pipeline maintaince work....Not only that, we have to wear 3M full face piece with mercury filter - 6009 and also organic gas filter 6003....OOooo man...it's damn hot inside there...I'm sweating like ##$%%*!##? it's very hottt..Anyway...that does not stop there...There're more things to tell you about what we have to face with the mercury issue around....I'll post about it later in future....just wait...

0 Comments:

Links to this post:

The Author

I’m Zaki. I used to be a project, process and chemical engineer. Few years ago I successfully became a Chartered Engineer (IChemE) and Professional Engineer (BEM). I'm now employed as a chemical engineering educator/researcher/consultant. Hope you like reading my blog. I welcome any feedback from you. My email: zaki.yz[alias]gmail.com. TQ!